~ Musings of a Bean Counter

Canadian Federal Election

According to the Toronto Star today the GTA is considered “ground zero” for the various political parties – win seats here and you win a majority. I have yet to hear from the different political parties how they plan on wooing us.

Toronto is the whipping-boy of the rest of Canada. People just love making fun of us, for believing we are the centre of the universe. I ran across this sentiment whilst on vacation in Cuba a few years back. There was a retired couple from New Brunswick in the same boat as myself, touring a lagoon. When they found out I am from Toronto the Toronto-bashing started. Instead of staying quiet & meek, as is the expectation, I blasted them with — “well if Toronto sucks so much, how about you return all of my tax dollars that go to support your have-not-province”… that shut them right up.

That’s right, Toronto and Ontario in general, boasts the largest population in the country. We pour billions of dollars into other Provinces. And our representation in Parliament is appalling. A tiny province like Prince Edward Island gets 4 Members of Parliament; how many does Ontario get? 106. PEI has a population of around 136,000 and Ontario has one of over 12million. There are other inequalities across the country as well, with regards to electoral districts.

I shall be voting, and I have no shame in admitting publicly that I shall be voting Liberal. The Tories have done nothing to engender any feelings of respect for their actions in parliament. Just when the judgement of “contempt of parliament” was about to be laid against the Tories the election gets called. The Liberals were kicked out of power due to Adscam, but what the Tories have been doing is worse. They decimated the surplus the Liberal Government had accumulated. They reduced the GST, but did not replace it with any other revenue stream — thereby significantly reducing the government coffers. They have been abysmal, dare I say it reprehensible with regards to women & women’s health.

They spent how much on the G20 in Toronto last year, when the City itself was begging the Tories to not hold it in the core of the city. Businesses are still recovering. They spent $2M on an artificial lake for the foreign delegates and it was dismantled shortly after. Monies were spent in Tory rides like Parry Sound (where Tony Clement is from) and other areas in preparation for the G20 .. and yet these locations were more than 300km away from the G20 location.

I weep for my country. I beg that my fellow citizens to actually get off their arses and vote. I don’t care who you vote for, but vote. You cannot be an armchair critic if you do not make the effort to exercise a right for which others around the world are dying for.